Inazuma Eleven - 3DShttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/inazuma_eleven/b/3ds/default.aspxen-USTelligent Community 1.5.134.12297 (Build: 5.5.134.12297)No Victory For The Plucky Underdog http://www.gameinformer.com/games/inazuma_eleven/b/3ds/archive/2014/03/07/inazuma-eleven-review-game-informer.aspxFri, 07 Mar 2014 21:30:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:6630337Joe Juba0<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/level-5/inazuma11/inazumareview610.jpg" style="max-width:610px;" border="0" alt="" /></p>
<p>Worlds in peril, chosen heroes, and long-lost prophesies are the usual tricks of the trade when it comes to role-playing games. Instead of going that direction, Inazuma Eleven (available for $20 on the 3DS eShop) tells the story of a down-and-out junior high soccer team. Though the fate of the planet isn&rsquo;t decided on a soccer field, this RPG still has depth and satisfying progression, though they aren&rsquo;t enough to earn Inazuma Eleven the win.</p>
<p>The soccer club at Raimon Junior High is in bad shape. It doesn&rsquo;t have enough members to field a full team, and the students it does have are a sorry lot. If not for the boundless and infectious enthusiasm of team captain Mark Evans, the club wouldn&rsquo;t even exist. Inazuma Eleven begins with the looming threat of a soccer club shutdown, and the player&rsquo;s job is to whip the team into championship form. Anyone who has seen films like <i>Shaolin Soccer</i> or <i>The Bad News Bears</i> (different sport, I know) knows what to expect, but the charming execution is enough to make up for the story&rsquo;s predictable turns.</p>
<p>Building up your sad-sack team is the core of Inazuma Eleven, and the process is a lot of fun. Mark is able to recruit and train new members; the losers I started with were quickly replaced by ringers I scouted myself from around the school and opposing teams. If you&rsquo;re one of the few people who enjoyed Final Fantasy X&rsquo;s Blitzball minigame, this is right up your alley. The thrill of finally nabbing a player you&rsquo;ve had your eye on is great, and tinkering with their positions and formation is an optimizer&rsquo;s dream. </p>
<p>Once you have a team that doesn&rsquo;t get steamrolled immediately, you start whipping it into shape, which happens via a hallowed RPG tradition: random encounters. Instead of traditional combat, other students challenge Mark to soccer battles as he roams around. These matches are short, and usually involve simple objectives like scoring a single goal or stealing the ball from the opposing team. The frequency and length of these trivial encounters can be aggravating, and more variety would have gone a long way to make them more interesting. The encounters become a tedious nuisance, but a necessary one; they award experience, plus other points you spend to recruit new players or improve your existing crew.</p>
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<p>The depth of the team management and progression in Inazuma Eleven is impressive, but they all revolve around playing soccer, which isn&rsquo;t nearly as fun as the RPG elements. Controlling your team (you play with a four-person squad in random encounters, but the &ldquo;boss&rdquo; matches involve all 11 players) is haphazard at best. Directing the movement is sloppy; you can pause the action to set up big plays, but the ability is on a cooldown, which means it often isn&rsquo;t available when you need it. In the meantime, you&rsquo;re frantically swiping and tapping to maintain some semblance of order, while your A.I. opponents are moving together like a well-oiled machine.</p>
<p>Thankfully, your team members don&rsquo;t have to rely solely on soccer fundamentals. Players learn outrageous special moves to use in bad situations, like dragon-assisted kicks and illusionary doubles who help steal the ball. These maneuvers are over-the-top and hilarious, but need to be used sparingly so you have them for the right situations. After the introductory matches, strategy plays an important role; players have opposing elemental affinities, so how you deal with a situation depends on which characters are clashing on the pitch. This doesn&rsquo;t transform a game into a complex tactical affair, but it prevents the action from getting too shallow.</p>
<p>Inazuma Eleven is a quirky and novel RPG, but the on-field action is too unrefined to be rewarding. As your team improves and your opponents get more formidable, a match becomes a parade of implausible magical techniques &ndash; which would be more entertaining if coordinating the gameplay basics like moving and passing were less frustrating. I enjoyed honing my players&rsquo; skills and managing a team, but I never had the degree of control to make the most of my decisions on the field.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=6630337" width="1" height="1">Role-PlayingInazuma Eleven3DSReview